A growing number of Israelis believe that the Duma firebombing that killed eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabshe and his father Sa’ad was carried out by Palestinians.
In the settlement of Kiryat Arba, whose Chief Rabbi Dov Lior endorsed Torat Hamelech, a book which describes when it is permissible to kill non-Jews, the conspiracy theory appears to be popular.
“There’s no proof there was an attack,” said Lior, a restaurant owner. “But everybody thinks it was Palestinians who did it.”
He believes that the murder of baby Ali was an honor killing. “It’s the same as the Abu Khdeir killing,” he said, referring to the rumor planted by Israeli police after the discovery of the Palestinian teenager’s charred body last summer.
On a poll conducted on the religious Zionist website Arutz Sheva, nearly half chose the option, “Other Palestinians – there’s something fishy about it” and more than a quarter selected “don’t know.” (Full disclosure: I had to select “don’t know” in order to see the poll results).
As investigative journalist Uri Blau reported, some Israelis are buying into conspiracy theories promoted on social media. “Now on cinema – playing in loops in TV channels – Abu Khdeir 2,” the title of one Facebook post reads.
In the settlement inside in the old city of Hebron, one soldier named Rotem I spoke to conceded that it’s probably Jews but didn’t rule out the possibility that Palestinians were responsible. “Maybe it’s fighting between [Palestinian] tribes,” he said. But he thought the Israeli authorities should ignore the Duma attack and focus on Hebron. “Instead of trying to investigate whether or not it was Arabs who did the attack, they [police] should come see the attacks on soldiers.”
When I asked Rotem why he thinks Israeli politicians condemned the attack and promised to treat on Jewish terror the same as Palestinian terror, he told me it was for the purposes of hasbara. “They say it for the [outside] world,” he replied before adding, “The whole government has a tendency to the left.”
Despite the promises of politicians like Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the soldier told me they didn’t have any orders to increase attention to settlers.
At that point, the soldier became agitated by the term “Jewish terror.”
“Stop using the term ‘Jewish terror.’ There is no Jewish terror,” Rotem said. “Remove this word from your lexicon. It doesn’t exist. They made it up for the leftist media.”
As commenter ckg pointed out, the conspiracy theory was also spread in the United States by Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. The evidence, “raises strong suspicions that the fire last week was the continuation of an 18-year-old feud between two Arab clans in Duma” Klein wrote in an issued statement.
Hopeless
ZOA president Morton Klein said:
The conspiracy theory thrives on this side of the Atlantic too.
omg.
“Honor killing”?
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, this is an extremely valuable glimpse into the insular, supremacist, and narcissistic thinking of some Israelis. They really are a brainwashed lot, and seem incapable of any compassion for others or for any introspection/soul-searching.
This morning I read Gideon Levy’s latest column. It’s an interview with Mohammed Allaan’s father, Nasser a- Din Allaan. I think that this excerpt is pertinent:
… Nasser a-Din says he is not surprised by his son’s determination, but his physical endurance does amaze him. He didn’t think he would keep up the hunger strike so long. What will happen if he dies?
“You have to ask [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that question. He has to prepare for the consequences. Does he think he is acting logically? My son lost consciousness, not because he wanted to, but Netanyahu lost awareness willingly. If Mohammed dies, life will be nothing for me. If my son dies, justice will die. Humaneness will die. The conscience of the international community will disappear, and whatever response comes will not be the fault of the Palestinians. The international community, which did nothing to save Mohammed, will bear the responsibility. An intifada? Possibly. Or maybe something bigger than an intifada. Only God knows what will happen if Mohammed dies.
“During Ramadan, we fast for part of the day, and it’s hard,” he continues. “Mohammed has been fasting for more than 60 days. I can’t stop thinking about him, especially not about that scene in Barzilai. I’m trying constantly to forget that picture, but it haunts me. I’m trying to treat myself, to forget Mohammed’s fate for a moment and relax. But it’s not working.
“I want to speak to the Israeli people in religious terms, from the viewpoint of the Koran and the Torah. We are all human beings, flesh and blood. If a Jew were in Mohammed’s place, I would treat him like a human being. But the religious Jews have lost the principles of the Torah. The Torah students know the truth but have fallen silent. They read the Torah every day and they are silent. If the true Jews and the true Muslims would meet, there would be no problems. Don’t believe the settlers who say they’re killing in the name of the Torah. The Torah says other things. The Israelis need to listen to the true words of the Torah, not to Netanyahu and his spokespeople. Netanyahu will lead his people to hell.”
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.672158?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
“Despite the promises of politicians like Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the soldier told me they didn’t have any orders to increase attention to settlers.”
I totally believe that~ the fact that nobody has been arrested is proof positive of that! It’s also interesting that the Jewish stabber murderer @- the Pride parade and the Jewish hunters/murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir are considered “mentally unstable” and never really “terrorists”~ ergo Rotem denies there is “Jewish terror” because the Israeli system tells him so.
Hebron is full of extremist and violent settlers that the IOF aids and abets, but Rotem is concerned about the “attacks on soldiers”! I did laugh with disgust, but this victim mentality and entitlement is simply so sick and ingrained. And if Rotem thinks that “the whole government has a tendency to the left”, heaven help us and them!
Israel could very well be a lost cause, and a dangerous one at that. I think I’ll go read some more of Avigail Abarbanel’s words…
‘A traumatized society is dangerous’
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/06/traumatized-society-dangerous
“It’s time for American Jews to recognize they have been duped” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/07/american-recognize-duped#sthash.1o3E56z3.dpuf
Thank you, Dan.
““The whole government has a tendency to the left.”
Well, if your starting point is Genghis Khan then I’d have to agree.
I heard Michael Oren said the “victims” might not even be dead.
:P